Nṛga Mahārāja

Nṛga Mahārāja was an ancient king famous for giving cows. He made one mistake without knowing it. He gave to a second brāhmaṇa a cow that had already been given to another and had wandered back into his herd. For this he was born as an ūsaravelli, a chameleon or large lizard. Bhīṣma names this fall in the Anuśāsana Parva as one of the examples in his teaching on daiva (fate) and puruṣakāra (human effort). The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells how Śrī Kṛṣṇa freed him from the lizard’s body at Dvārakā.

The account in the Anuśāsana Parva

Bhīṣma teaches Yudhiṣṭhira about daiva and puruṣakāra. In that teaching he names Nṛga Mahārāja as a great giver of cows (go-dāna-para) of ancient times.

Nṛga had given cows to a certain ṛṣi. One of those cows strayed and came back to mix with Nṛga’s own herd. Nṛga did not know that the cow belonged to another. He gave the same cow a second time, to a different brāhmaṇa. For this one pāpa (sin) of unknowingly giving away a brāhmaṇa’s cow, he was changed into an ūsaravelli, a chameleon or large lizard.

Bhīṣma places this event in his list of examples that show how daiva and puruṣakāra work without fail. Nṛga was a king of great standing, and the puṇya (merit) of his countless gifts of cows should by right have won him svarga (heaven). Yet he could not escape the fruit of this one error. The Mahābhārata tells this in the Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 6.

The account in the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa

The Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa tells the story of this same king at much greater length. It tells it from the end of his life as a lizard, in the 10th Skanda, Chapter 64.

The young Yādavas of Dvārakā find a lizard as big as a mountain trapped in a dry well. Śrī Kṛṣṇa lifts it out, and at His touch Nṛga returns to his shining form. Nṛga gives his own name and tells the same story of the cow that is told above: the cow that strayed, the two men who each claimed it, and his failed attempt to make amends with a hundred thousand other cows. He is then granted final mokṣa (liberation). Śrī Kṛṣṇa gives the gathered Yādavas a full teaching on the danger of taking a brāhmaṇa’s property.

The Anuśāsana Parva and the Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa speak of the same king and the same fault. The Anuśāsana Parva gives it as an itihāsa example for the teaching of daiva and puruṣakāra. The Bhāgavata gives it as a full account of his fall and his freedom.

Nṛga in the Aśvamedhika Parva

Nṛga is also named in the Aśvamedhika Parva, in the account of the gleaner brāhmaṇa Saktuprastha, which is part of the Nakulākhyāna (the account of the golden mongoose). There Dharma names Nṛga together with Rantideva and Śibi. He names them to show that the fruit of dāna depends on how justly it is given, not on how much is given. Nṛga gave away thousands of cows, yet he fell to naraka (hell) for unknowingly giving again a single cow that was not his to give. The Mahābhārata tells this in the Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 90.

Sources

• Mahābhārata, Anuśāsana Parva, Chapter 6
• Bhāgavata Mahā Purāṇa, 10th Skanda, Chapter 64
• Mahābhārata, Aśvamedhika Parva, Chapter 90 (the Nakulākhyāna, the account of the gleaner brāhmaṇa Saktuprastha)